


The Carriage Held but just Ourselves - and Immortality

by WhiteravenGreywolf



Series: If I stay [57]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A family of troublemakers, Epilogue, F/F, Family Feels, Fluff, Happy Ending, The End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 03:44:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18957208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteravenGreywolf/pseuds/WhiteravenGreywolf
Summary: Things are slowly returning to normal now that everyone is back. Carol can feel the end of an era coming, and she needs to decide what she wants to do about it.





	The Carriage Held but just Ourselves - and Immortality

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! The last story of the series! Man, what a journey! Now I know that some of you are going to complain, some of you would probably like to see this series continue for another 60 stories or so, and when you'll get to the end you'll probably think: Yeah, she could continue for another 60 stories easily. But the truth is, this is the last.  
> It was quite the journey indeed. Some of you have been following every story from the beginning and faithfully coming back every day. Others just stumbled upon it a few days ago. Either way, this series would have never lasted as long as it did without your support!  
> Now I am tired in so many ways and I'm probably going to stay away from a keyboard for a few days, rest up a bit before I do anything else. But anyway, as usual, I hope you enjoy this story and thank you so much for reading!

Tony's funeral had brought everyone back together again, a few days after the fighting was over. Carol wanted to go alone, but Maria and Monica insisted to be there. Carol watched as Pepper placed a crown of flower over the water, watched the river take it away. There would be no burial for Natasha because there was no body to bury, no family to mourn her, beside them. There were talks of rebuilding Avengers HQ, and Carol hoped Nat would have her memorial there. She deserved it.

  
While everyone dispersed and caught up with old friends they had last seen from across the battlefield, Carol came to hang by the vegetable garden. She sighed. There was a vegetable garden. Tony had built a vegetable garden. He really had put it all behind him.

  
"Rough day, Captain Danvers?"

  
She turned around. Fury was standing two feet behind her, not even a smile betraying how happy he was to see her again.

  
"I buried a friend today. Couldn't bury the other. And now I'm jealous of Tony's lettuces."

  
Fury came to stand beside her to look at the garden.

  
"Figured Stark would be good at everything he did."

  
Carol sighed longly.

  
"Do you remember that time you brought me to LA with you for his assessment, for the Initiative?"

  
Fury placed his hands in his pockets.

  
"I seem to recall you saying to never call on him if we wanted the Initiative to work."

  
Carol nodded.

  
"Compulsive behavior. Self-destructive tendencies. Textbook narcissism. Natasha recommended Iron man but not Tony Stark. And yet, here we are."

  
"Here we are," Fury agreed.

  
They fell silent. Carol looked around her. She saw Maria talking with Laura and Monica with Scott and Hope.

  
"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

  
"Hill and I have been tracking the source of some electromagnetic disturbance following the snap. It might be nothing or it might require the help of an Avenger."

  
Carol crossed her arms.

  
"The Avengers don't exist anymore."

  
"They do. As long as the world will need protection, the Avengers will be there, I have no doubt. The question I've been asking myself is whether Captain Marvel will be there to lead them or not."

  
Carol had no answer to that. Maybe a few years back she would have, but now, she remained silent.

  
"I'll be in Venice if you're looking for me," Fury said as he started to walk away.

  
Carol walked around with a surprised expression on her face.

  
"It's the first time you've given me your location before disappearing."

  
Fury had a small, furtive smile.

  
"Well, maybe I want you to visit. Or maybe I'm making sure that you won't."

  
Carol smiled.

  
"I'm happy you're back, Fury."

  
"Not as much as I am."

* * *

  
  
A few days later someone came knocking at their door. Carol let go of the feather duster – five years worth of dust did not joke around – and she went to open. To her surprise, David was on the other side.

  
"Hey, David, what are you..."

  
"I did it!" he said excitedly.

  
"Okay..." Carol replied, unsure of what he was talking about.

  
She let him in. From the kitchen, Maria called out.

  
"Who is it?"

  
Carol shouted back.

  
"It's David. He said he did it?"

  
Maria left the kitchen and joined them in the dining room, looking just as confused as Carol.

  
"Hello, David. Sorry for the mess we weren't expecting..."

  
Before she could finish, David pulled a vial out of his bag. There was a blue liquid inside, shining in the somewhat dark room. He placed the vial on the table.

  
"I came so close before I was snapped away but now, I have it. An agent synthesized from your blood that can make someone virtually immortal for about two hundred years."

  
Both Carol and Maria's eyes grew wide with surprise.

  
"Are you sure?" Carol asked anxiously.

  
"A hundred percent. It's untested and I would need more of your blood to create more, but I ran the simulation ten times now. Cellular regeneration is off the chart."

  
"Meaning?"

  
"This serum turns back the clock, and then slows it down. It brings you back to your physical peak, then prevents you from aging. For about two hundred years right now. I can work on a formula that will last longer but two hundred is already quite a long time, I think."

  
Carol fell silent, contemplating the vial on the table. This was her cure to everlasting loneliness – which, to be fair, wasn't such a big problem anymore. Between Monica who was now just as immortal as she was and all of her Asgardian friends, eternity had never looked more crowded.

  
"Any side effects?" she asked.

  
"Fever, upon taking the cure. After that, none that I could find."

  
Carol looked over at Maria. She was thoughtful, Carol could almost see the cogs in her brain turning. They had talked about this cure before, and Carol had assured her that this was her choice to make. But since then the circumstances had changed quite a bit.

  
"Have you talked to anyone about this?" Maria finally asked.

  
David shook his head.

  
"No. I promised I would look into it for you and only you. I'm working on something else, derived from the serum, to facilitate cellular regeneration without the de-aging effect, maybe help amputees grow their limbs back or allow paraplegics to walk again. But the de-aging is only for you."

  
Maria nodded.

  
"How do I take it?"

  
"Injection. But better do it at the hospital, in case something goes wrong..."

  
Maria was silent for a moment. Carol wanted to probe more, however, Maria decided:

  
"Can you give me a day or two, to decide..."

  
"Of course, no problem."

  
He pulled the vial back in his bag.

  
"I know it's a big decision. Just call me when you're ready."

  
He left their home with a final nod. Carol looked over at Maria, waiting for her to say something. Maria sighed and said:

  
"I'll tell you what I've decided tomorrow."

  
Carol picked up the feather duster.

  
"I just want you to know that whatever you decide, I won't try to change your mind or love you any less for it, okay? It's your choice."

  
Carol placed a kiss on Maria's cheek and went back to dusting, leaving Maria alone with her thoughts.

* * *

  
  
Maria couldn't sleep. All the thoughts in her mind were completely focused on the serum, and two hundred years of immortality at her disposal, basically. She'd gone through every argument against it, and all the arguments for it. If she listened to her heart, the decision would be easy. But hasted heartily decisions were usually Carol's things. She was the voice of reason, or at least she was supposed to be.

  
When her mind was too tired to think, but her brain just didn't want to keep her eyes close, she looked beside her. Carol was holding onto her fiercely. Not strongly enough that she would hurt her, but with enough strength that Maria couldn't roll away from her if she wanted to.

  
Even if Carol liked to pretend otherwise, she was a cuddler. Had always been one. But this was different. There was a sort of desperation in the way she held her like she was afraid Maria would slip out of her grasp. Like she would disappear suddenly, turn into a pile of dust once again. Maria didn't remember being so clingy when Carol had first returned. She did remember waking up from a bad nightmare, and to her relief, finding Carol peacefully sleeping beside her.

  
She moved a bit closer to her wife, let her wrap her arms around her even more. She passed a hand through her short, messy hair. Now that they were so short they always looked like a mess when she woke up in the morning, every day a different but equally entertaining sort of mess. This was the sort of thing she could have for another two hundred years, she realized. The pleasure of passing her hands through Carol's hair. The feeling of Carol holding onto her like she never wanted to let go. The joy of seeing Carol's brown eyes opening every morning, with that same lovesick puppy look she'd been giving her for thirty years now.

  
Maria smiled and passed her hand through Carol's hair once again. Then, she placed a kiss on her forehead and closed her eyes. In the morning when Carol's arms would not be as tightly secured around her, she would call David.

* * *

  
  
They rented a room at the hospital where most of the wounded from the battle at the Avengers HQ were still being treated. David had assured the fever wouldn't last more than a couple of days, four of five at the longest. Still, Carol had made the uncomfortable chair in Maria's room her bed for the week. Maria hadn't had any violent reaction to the serum. Slowly, her temperature had risen, muscle aches had settled, and she was bedridden from that point onward.

  
She slept a lot, but when she didn't sleep, Carol was there to keep her company and tell her stories of the five years she had missed.

  
"Four... no, five, actually! I towed five ships back to one planet or another. That's one per year!"

  
Maria laughed, ignoring the pain in her ribs.

  
"You're the Universe's tow truck."

  
"I told Monica exactly the same thing! That was when I carried this commercial spaceship back to Xandar. There were five people in there, they'd been stuck for almost three years inside, can you imagine?"

  
"Three years stuck in a spaceship... That must have been hard. I don't even want to be stuck in a spaceship for a year even if you were the only other person on board."

  
Carol gasped in indignation while Maria laughed.

  
"Need I remind you that you are about to become immortal for two hundred years? You're going to be stuck with me for a really really long time!"

  
Maria continued to laugh, and soon enough Carol joined her.

  
"Continue your story," Maria prompted. "What happened next?"

  
"What do you think? I carried the ship back to Xandar, the medical team took care of the passengers and the ship was dismantled. I suppose. Oh, Monica got a thank you kiss from one of the passengers, even though I basically did all the work."

  
Maria smiled.

  
"Oh, you wanted a thank you kiss?"

  
"From you only."

  
Carol pressed a kiss on Maria's forehead, even if it was sticky with sweat, then she sat back down in her chair.

  
"So, no one gave you a thank you kiss while I was away?" Maria asked playfully.

  
Carol knew she was simply joking and not accusing Carol of any form of infidelity. Still, she pursed her lips thoughtfully before she replied:

  
"Well, you know me. It's very hard for women not to throw themselves at my feet. But no, no thank you kisses until I came home. Although, an Asgardian asked me to go grab a drink with her."

  
"Asgardian, hm?"

  
"The Queen of New Asgard, now, actually. You'll like her. She was a Valkyrie, she has a flying horse and the hottest accent I have ever heard. And you know accents are not a turn on for me but she is something else."

  
"And she asked you for a drink?"

  
Carol nodded.

  
"Yep. And I ran away because I didn't know what to tell her."

  
Maria laughed.

  
"You ran away from such a gorgeous sounding woman?"

  
"I know, right? But I knew there would only ever be one woman in my heart."

  
Carol leaned forward again, her face close to Maria's, their eyes meeting. She smiled, and Maria smiled back.

  
"I don't know how you did it. Those were the longest five years of my life without you. And you had to wait for six, without even knowing that I would come back."

  
Maria took her hand in hers and gave her a comforting smile.

  
"It was probably just as hard for me as it was for you. I never told you but... I got a date, once."

  
Carol's eyes grew wide with surprise, but also with interest.

  
"Seriously? When?"

  
"About three years after the accident."

  
"How was it?"

  
Maria pursed her lips to stop herself from laughing.

  
"I don't know. I stood him up. I just... I couldn't. So instead of going, I stayed home with Monica and we watched Top Gun and ordered pizza."

  
Soon, the two of them were laughing whole-heartedly.

* * *

  
  
Maria had fallen asleep, and so Carol had started wandering through the hospital, looking for a vending machine worth the name. She wanted KitKats, was it too much to ask?  
She passed through an empty corridor and emerged in another one. She sighed. This place was a real maze. Every hallway was white and empty, and every time Carol found a vending machine it was a coffee machine, not a snack one. Come to think of it, maybe she'd been going in circles and had only seen the exact same coffee machine five times. She looked up and down the corridor when someone caught her attention at the end of one of the hallways. A short woman, with red hair tied in a braid, the tip of which was platinum white. Adrenaline shot through her body when she saw her. It couldn't be, but it had to be.

  
Carol ran through the hallway, which thankfully was empty. The woman stopped when she heard her footsteps.

  
"Bruce told me you were back but I didn't really want to believe it," Carol said as she stopped a foot from her friend.

  
Natasha turned around. She swallowed thickly.

  
"I thought it would be best to just disappear."

  
Carol smiled sadly, a sob choking her throat.

  
"Without even saying goodbye?"

  
Natasha brushed a tear out of her eyes and Carol rushed up to her to hug her. She was real, she was really there, really back. Carol took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Natasha hugged her back. When they separated, Carol was still a bit stunned:

  
"How? Clint told us it was irreversible."

  
"Steve is more stubborn than that, apparently," Natasha explained as she brushed the tears out of her eyes. "He found a way, I don't know how. I just woke up in the desert, and he was there. He programmed my suit to bring me back, told me he would be right behind me, but then..."

  
Carol nodded. The news of Steve's retirement, for a lack of a better term, had already been spread around the Avengers.

  
"So, what are you going to do now?" Carol asked.

  
"I heard Fury was in Venice."

  
Carol nodded.

  
"You're going to Venice?"

  
Natasha shook her head.

  
"I'm staying as far away from Venice as possible. I think it's time I retire too."

  
Carol looked at her with surprise.

  
"Really?"

  
"Nobody needs Black Widow anymore. But a know some people who could use help from Natasha Romanov."

  
"You have a plan."

  
"It was just a thought, really. When I was too tired to go on. Somehow I always found the strength to continue but not this time... This time it's over for good. Plus I left the guys alone a few hours and they wrecked my only home. I need to make a new one, and I think some people could use a home too."

  
Carol offered her a smile.

  
"Well, whatever your plan is, you can always count on my help."

  
Natasha smirked.

  
"That's what Bruce told me. And Clint. And Wanda. And Sam."

  
Carol shrugged.

  
"That's what families are for."

* * *

  
  
Four days after initially taking the cure, Maria woke up feeling a whole lot better than she had felt in a long time. She looked beside her and found Carol sleeping in the chair, curled up on her side, her mouth hanging slightly open. She placed her hand on her own forehead. The temperature had subsisted, it seemed. She pushed herself out of bed and went to the bathroom.

  
She turned on the light and froze when her eyes found her reflection in the mirror. She looked young again. David did say that the serum would keep her at her physical peak but this wasn't exactly what she had imagined. She was thirty again or at least close to it. All the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes had disappeared. The lines on her forehead were just faint outlines. The wrinkles at the corner of her lips had also almost completely disappeared. Any grayish hair she could have had before was completely gone.

  
She tentatively touched her face, as if the image would suddenly change and disappear, and show her real reflection again.

  
"Maria?" she heard Carol sleepily calling for her from the bedroom, followed by a yawn.

  
"In here," she replied, trying to hold in her panic.

  
She heard the feet of the chair scraping the ground as Carol stood up. Carol stopped by the bathroom door and stared at her as soon as their eyes met.

  
"Wow..."

  
"I know."

  
"You're sure you didn't time travel?" Carol asked with a smile as she moved into the room, slowly closing the door behind her.

  
"I don't know."

  
Carol passed her thumb over Maria's cheek, feeling the skin under her finger.

  
"How are you feeling?" she asked.

  
"Good. The fever is gone."

  
"Any weird impulses? To you feel the need to draw some weird alien symbols?"

  
Maria chuckled and shook her head.

  
"No. I'm okay."

  
Carol nodded seriously.

  
"Good. That's good."

  
They both looked at their reflection in the mirror. They looked almost the same age, just like when Carol had returned after the accident.

  
"Now we can really be best friends forever," Carol joked.

  
Maria snored and elbowed Carol lightly.

  
"Seriously?"

  
"Sorry, I've been waiting for three days to make this joke!"

  
They sighed, still looking at their reflections. Finally, Carol moved to press a kiss on Maria's temple.

  
"I'm going to miss your wrinkles."

  
"Really?"

  
"They made you look so wise and serious. Now we both look like troublemakers again."

  
Maria smiled and kissed Carol's cheek.

  
"Troublemakers, hm? Got any idea of the trouble we could cause?"

  
Carol turned to face her wife, her arms wrapping around Maria's waist.

  
"A few..."

  
Before they could kiss, however, there was a knock on the door.

  
"Please tell me the two of you are not in there."

  
They sighed. Even with all of her newfound powers, Monica's greatest superpower would always be her ability to ruin the moment for her moms.

  
"We're not doing anything bad!" Carol shouted back.

  
She reluctantly let go of Maria and opened the door. When Monica finally saw her mother, her eyes grew wide.

  
"Wow."

  
"I know, right?"

  
"How is it that I'm now the one who looks the oldest in the family?"

* * *

  
  
Once they were sure Maria's body had acclimated to the serum and there were no immediate side effects, they were allowed to go home. Instead, Carol disappeared into space for two days, to Monica's surprise. She came back with no explanations. Or rather, she told her 'It's between your mother and me'. A week or so later, Monica was summoned home by her parents, as Carol put it.

  
When she arrived, she didn't miss the small ship parked in the garden. It looked brand new, just big enough for two to comfortably travel and live in. Kind of like a space camping car, Monica supposed. Carol was loading traveling bags onto the ship. She approached it carefully.

  
"Going on a holiday?" she asked as Carol jumped off the ship.

  
Carol rubbed her hands together and shook her head.

  
"Retiring."

  
Monica was shocked for a moment.

  
"What?"

  
"With everything that has happened recently, and everyone retiring one by one, I thought it was a good time I get a life, you know? So your mom and I have decided to travel the Galaxy."

  
Monica was stunned silent for a moment. Carol Danvers was retiring. Captain Danvers? The one person whom even amnesia couldn't hold from working and helping others before herself? That Carol Danvers was retiring.

  
"What did the other Avengers say?"

  
Carol shrugged.

  
"Nothing. They just hope I'll come back to visit soon."

  
Maria walked out of the house then, a bag on her shoulders and Goose in her arms.

  
"Honey, you're here."

  
She pressed a kiss on her daughter's cheek. Then, as she walked passed Carol she asked her:

  
"Did you tell her yet?"

  
"I was about to."

  
Monica frowned.

  
"Tell me what?"

  
Maria disappeared into the ship and Carol took in a deep breath.

  
"So, Carol Danvers is retiring. I mean, I'm sixty, I have completely the right to retire. But, the world will always need a Captain Marvel. So, what do you say?"

  
Monica was once again stunned.

  
"What do you mean?"

  
"Do you want to do it? Take up Captain Marvel's mantle. Protect the world? Cause if you don't I know a teenager in Jersey City who would probably do it."

  
"Don't you dare," Monica replied as Carol chuckled.

  
"So you'll do it?"

  
"Me? Captain Marvel?"

  
Carol shrugged.

  
"Why not? Sam just became the new Captain America. There's no more Black Widow, no more Iron Man, no more Hawkeye... Let's make sure that Captain Marvel doesn't die just yet."

  
"I..."

  
Monica threw her arms around Carol.

  
"Thank you."

  
"You'll do great, Lieutenant Trouble."

  
They separated when Maria walked down the ship's ramp. Monica turned to her other mother and hugged her as well.

  
"I'm going to miss you two."

  
"We'll come back from time to time," Carol promised. "In the meantime, don't forget to come to water the plants and dust the house from time to time. We know what five years without dusting looks like now."

  
Monica smiled.

  
"You're even taking Goose with you."

  
"Fury didn't want to keep her," Carol replied.

  
Monica nodded with a sad smile. She let go of her mother and took a step back.

  
"Don't forget to call me from time to time."

  
"You're the daughter, you call us!" Carol replied.

  
Together Carol and Maria stepped into the ship. Carol closed off the door, waving goodbye at Monica.

  
"See you around, Captain Marvel!"

  
"Be careful, mom!"

  
The door closed and Carol took her place in the piloting seat. Maria was already seated in the co-pilot seat, Goose on her lap.

  
"Alright, Captain," Carol asked. "Where are we going?"

  
"How about we start with Hala? Now that you're no longer their public enemy number one? I want to see what it looks like."

  
"Your wish is my command, ma'am."

  
Carol fired up the engine and took off without looking back. She knew the Earth was in good hands.

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a rumor on Twitter that an ending with Natasha was shot, one where she opened an orphanage and I feel so robbed from this ending because it could have been amazing, so I decided to right that wrong.  
> Anyway, once again, thank you for reading through this series, through its ups and down, and have a great weekend!


End file.
